Disclaimer: I do not own any characters of Artix Entertainment portrayed within.

Serenity's Inn: Falconreach

Jake, Death Knight and hero of Lore, huddled at one of the tables over his mug of warm apple cider. He really needed this, this break from his home life. After he had allowed Flora to fly to Osprey Cove on Bruno, and she had suddenly, inexplicably returned with Captain Rhubarb leading her by the arm, along with a large crew of pirates to move Flora's things directly to the pirate home town, Teresa had assumed that he had set that up in addition to everyone else. She had been chewing him out hourly since then, and his fried nerves could not handle any more screaming.

He shuddered when he thought of what was waiting for him when he finally went back, "What did I do to deserve this?"

A voice accompanied the sound of a chair sliding back, "Deserve what?"

He glanced up and saw Artix von Krieger sliding into the seat across from him, another mug of cider in hand. Vayle was conspicuously absent from the usual recent picture of the two.

He smiled a wan smile, "My wife, that's what. Rips me a new one every night. What's your excuse?"

Artix shrugged and took a sip from his mug, "I don't really need one. Lady Celestia was holding a tea party and, well I have already had enough from her to last a lifetime."

He raised his mug in agreement, "I heard that, no more tea for me."

Artix laughed and clinked his mug against the other, "You're hiding from your wife? That doesn't sound like you."

He scowled into the contents of his mug, "Don't remind me. Teresa has been so irrational lately, and I can't figure out what I've been doing wrong. She thinks I'm spending more time on setting other people up with each other than I am spending on her, and I had absolutely nothing to do with Flora and Rhubarb!"

Artix gave him a surprised look, "What's this about Flora and Rhubarb?"

He sighed, "Bruno gave Flora a ride to Osprey Cove about a week ago. Then within three days she's back in Amityvale with Rhubarb leading her by the arm, with a crew of pirates that instantly start loading up all of Flora's things to move back to Osprey Cove. Apparently, in the day that Flora was there, she fell in love with Rhubarb. And I get punished for it."

Artix shook his head, "No, she's always had a thing for the pirate. You just never noticed."

His head shot up, "Huh? Really?" His mood improved significantly, "Well that gives me some ammunition for when Teresa starts screaming at me tonight. Maybe I'll finally be able to talk some sense into her."

Artix smirked, "Well, if you ever need another break, you can always drop by our place. Vayle still is under the impression that we owe you one."

He smiled, "And you don't? If it weren't for me taking the initiative you two would never tied the knot."

Artix flushed, "Oh fine, we still owe you. Happy?"

He almost laughed, "No, but you made me feel a bit better. Thanks for the opportunity to crack a joke at your expense."

Artix scowled, "Well, not that I'm happy about being the whipping boy, but you're welcome." A thought seemed to occur to Artix, "Jake, how did you meet Teresa? I don't think you've ever told me, of course I could be wrong."

He smiled, "No, I don't think I ever have, and I think it would do me a world of good to remember a time that things weren't so damn chaotic." He closed his eyes as he took a trip down memory lane, "Let's see, it was back during the pirate vs ninja war. I was fighting for the pirates, Teresa was fighting for the ninja's."

Artix interrupted, "Wait, you two fought each other?"

He nodded, "Yeah, for a while anyways. Then we faced each other and I trounced her pretty darn good. Took her captive and..." He chuckled, "Things just kind of cascaded after that."

A high-pitched, sing song voice chimed in, "You forgot how you knocked her off of a cliff and you dove in after her."

His eyes snapped open, "That voice..."

He turned around in his seat, long blond ponytail, bright pink and white armor, gold scaled blue eyed baby dragon curled around her shoulders.

A smile spread across his face, "Louise, it's been too long."

Artix couldn't help but smile as Jake stood up and Louise practically jumped on him with a hug. Eyes shut, laughter ringing as clear as a crystal bell.

Jake peeled Louise off of him, "Where have you been? I havn't seen anything of you for months!"

Louise picked her baby dragon up off of the floor, "I was in Dragonsgrasp. Bubbles here needed an older dragon to teach her some things."

Jake smirked, in apparent effort to not laugh, "Bubbles? You named your dragon Bubbles?"

Louise hugged the little dragon to her chest, "Yes I did! Isn't she adorable?"

Jake scratched the little dragon behind the ear, causing it to coo in pleasure, "She sure is, but, you do know I would have been happy to let Bruno do the same thing for you."

Louise blushed, "Oh, I wouldn't want to impose..."

Jake laughed, "Nonsense, we've been friends since we started adventuring. I would do almost anything just because you asked. Having Bruno teach Bubbles a few tricks would have been the least I could do."

He kept silent while Jake chatted with Louise for what felt like hours. The gloom that had seemed almost eternal over the Death Knight's face recently vanished entirely. But then, Louise did that to everyone she walked by. He shook his head, it was either her almost childish innocence and willingness to help just about anyone, or the smile that made you want to do the same. Whatever it was, she was a ray of sunshine on a dark day.

The door to the inn exploded inwards with a rush of flame, followed by a scream, "JAKE!"

He whirled around in his seat, Xan, the insane pyromancer, had burst through the door and was making a beeline through the other patrons, oblivious to how everyone was scrambling through their backpacks for an ice or water weapon.

Jake stood fast while smoothly pulling a weapon that looked like a giant snowflake on a stick out of his backpack, typically, the ice was black, "What do you want Xan? You had better have a good reason for busting in here."

Xan was incensed, more so that usual, "Where is your wife!"

Jake appeared baffled, "Teresa? I thought she was training with you?"

The fire around Xan's head burned brighter, "Oh, sure. She WAS training with me. Until she stole the pyronomicon from me and left!"

Jake shrugged, "So she took the book back." When Xan didn't reply, just burned brighter, Jake relented, "You did check my house right?"

The room started to get uncomfortably warm, "Would I be standing here if I hadn't been there already!" Xan's attitude did a complete 180 turn, like only Xan could do, "Oh yes, I found this nailed to the door, it's for you."

Xan pulled a letter out of his pocket, in flaming hands, and handed it to Jake, "Fireproof stationary. Don't know how it got there."

Jake gave the letter an incredulous stare, "How am I supposed to know that you didn't write this yourself?"

Xan responded instantly, "You've seen me write, that's not my handwriting."

Jake nodded slowly, "True."

The Death Knight then sat down and ran his finger along the seam of the letter, tearing it open. Jake took the letter out and his eyes slowly scanned the page. The gloom that had vanished when Louise showed up, returned, magnified by a factor of ten.

Jake started to laugh, but it wasn't a happy laugh, it was a laugh that came from a tortured soul mixed with a good deal of insanity.

Jake put his helm on and ignited it, "Hay Xan, you feel like burning down a village?"

Louise set a hand on Jake's shoulder, "Jake? What's going on?"

Jake stood, did not respond, and sprinted out of the door. He left the letter behind.

Xan was frozen in shock for moment just like the rest of them, when that moment passed however...

The pyromancer ran after the Death Knight, "Wait for me!"

Louise stretched her hand after Jake and shouted, "Jake! Where are you going?"

He looked down at the letter Jake had left behind, took it in his hands, and started to read it to himself, 'To whom it may concern. Jake, I have had enough. You are never home when I want you to be. No matter how much I ask you to be. It seems you love your job more than me. And setting other people up with each other for that matter. I'm leaving, consider this letter to be my statement of divorce. Don't bother coming after me, the clan will be waiting for you if you do. May we never meet again, Teresa'

He slumped back in his chair in shock. Teresa had left Jake, and now he was going to burn down the Shadow of the Wind Village out of revenge. He could only hope that afterwards Jake would be in a better state of mind, at least stable enough to not do something like this again.

Island of Sho Nuff: Outskirts of Shadow of the Wind Village

Xan tried to make sense of what was going on, not that he wasn't thrilled that he would be allowed to burn down a village while Jake just watched. The flip of attitude on said Death Knight's part was what had him confused. Jake was the hero of Lore, regardless of how much he loathed having to refer to Jake as such, he shouldn't be burning down villages and slaughtering ninjas. Yet here they were, advancing at a breakneck speed on a direct path to where a literal wall of shadowblade masters stood between them and the actual village.

Jake spoke, in a furious tone, "Hang back, you'll get to have your fun when we get past them."

He started to open his mouth to reply but Jake charged ahead before he could answer. Heading straight into the line of ninjas and hacking away. He watched for a moment, Jake was aiming to kill with every swing, not knock out like usual, and he was cutting every ninja in half with one swing each, the epitome of brutality. It was almost like, seeing Sepulchure back in action as a Death Knight. That was just downright scary. Even for him.

Jake's shout interrupted his thoughts, "XAN, hurry up, no time for daydreaming!"

He took a second to glance around the impromptu battlefield, there was nothing left but black, bloodstained bits of cloth. And one very angry Death Knight standing in the middle of it all.

Jake beckoned, "Well? Do you want to burn the place down or am I going to have to smash it down?"

Something in the tone of the Death Knight made it sound like a very bad idea to do otherwise, so he followed. Once Jake had led him to the gate of the village itself the Death Knight paused for a moment.

Jake muttered, "I seriously hope I never need do this again, then again, I'm not likely to get married again after this." The Death Knight turned to him, "Well Xan, go crazy. Don't stop till there is nothing but ash remaining."

He ignored all of his previous thoughts and started to laugh, the new Jake was fun, "Got it, they won't know what hit them."

Before he could do anything significant though, a huge fireball crashed down out of the sky and knocked him flat.

A voice he recognized spoke, "I thought I told you not to come here Jake."

Jake answered, "Really? I guess I was too furious to notice."

He picked himself up and stood still, watching former husband and wife have what would probably be their last argument.

Jake shook his head, "I can't believe you. I made it very clear when we tied the knot that I wouldn't be available to be around the house all the time. That is my job, I have to be everywhere."

Teresa scowled, "That may be so, but you could have spent more time than you did. I would be home alone for days before you would get back."

Jake clenched his free hand, "And didn't I go out of my way to make it up to you every time that happened?"

Teresa snarled, "There are only so many apologies that a woman can bear. You passed that limit a long time ago."

Jake flipped his helm up so that they both could see his face, which was twisted in a mix of fury and sorrow, "Yet you said nothing, just continued to gnaw my ear off, and is it safe to assume that you also started sleeping with Thyton?"

Teresa nodded, "He, unlike you, knows how to treat a woman."

A long moment of silence fell.

Jake broke it by flipping his helm back down, "Then I suppose that there is nothing left to say. Ready whatever weapon you feel like using."

Teresa smirked, "You're serious? If you forgot, I hold the pyronomicon now."

Jake's voice held absolutely no emotion, "And Xan is as powerful without it as you are with it. Enough talking, it hurts enough as it is."

Jake lunged, axe blade first, at his former wife. The latter of which raised a wall of flame in front of said lunging Death Knight. Jake sailed through the fire without pause, nor cry of pain, to slam his axe in the dirt about a foot in front of Teresa, which created an orb of darkness that pulsed outwards and enveloped the both of them. When it cleared, things were just as they had been. No visible change had taken place.

Teresa smirked again, "And what exactly was that supposed to accomplish?"

Jake raised his axe over his head, and a black bolt of lightning struck the center of the DOOM weapon.

The Death Knight spoke one word, "Coil."

Teresa's eyes widened as what seemed to be pure life energy poured straight out of her and into Jake. The traitorous fire mage then sank to her knees as the unrelenting drain continued, until Teresa finally passed out. Jake walked over to the unconscious body of his former wife, was he actually going to kill Teresa?

Jake knelt and took the pyronomicon off of Teresa's body, then held the book up, "Your choice Xan, the orb or the book?"

He answered without a thought, "The book."

Jake tossed him the pyronomicon without a thought, then pointed to the Shadow of the Wind village, "Now burn it down."

He started laughing like a demon, "Gladly!"

Jake turned away from the giddy pyromancer and stood atop the bluff overlooking the ocean. He really had done it, almost killed the woman that had been, up until six or seven hours ago, the love of his life. That left a hole where his heart should have been, a deep, hollow, echoing hole. Teresa had still left him even after he had tried everything that he could do short of abandoning Lore to its own devices. It seemed that he really couldn't have a life of his own and do his job. What if he had known that when he started out? Would he still have done what he had done? Gone on all of those epic journey's, saved all of those people, and taken down Sepulchure? He smiled a sad smile to himself, he still probably would have. Only because his moral standards would not allow him to do otherwise.

Xan tapped him on the shoulder, and he knew it was Xan because no one else would have survived the pyromancer's onslaught, "Hey, the entire place is ash. Got any other places that you want to burn?"

He shook his head, but did not turn around, "No, that will be all for today Xan." Before the pyromancer could leave however he added, "And Xan, should you ever need my help with freeing Jaania that does not involve sacrificing my life, you know where to find me."

He sat down on the cliff, not even bothering to check if Teresa was still alive or not. Frankly, at this point, he couldn't care either way, and that hole where his heart used to be, well, he supposed that he was going to have to learn to live with it.